Kampe is begging for a beatdown

Anyone harboring warm and fuzzy feelings for our little buddies to the East need to get their game face on, and anyone who hasn't already got their tickets for Saturday's game at the palace need to trek out there and take care of business. Oakland's coach has been wagging his tongue. Apparently(according to Kampe) Beilein told him Michigan has nothing to gain from playing them in the future(which is true, but I doubt he actually said that) and Kampe is trying to spin it like Michigan is afraid to play Oakland.

What is the point of any post, really? I suppose I am trying to encourage people to buy tickets, fill the arena, further the basketball program that I love...and avoid the empty Detroit arena on TV effect that other programs seem to have perfected. Plus it struck me as a cheap shot.

Back to the topic of general posting elitism, what exactly gives a post merit? I suppose there are some diaries with statistical analysis. Oh, and some people like to pick out like the one respectable person in a rivals program and put funny captions by his pictures. I guess that has merit.

Mostly people just post things that are interesting to them. And then other unhappy people jump on and express that unhappiness by pointing out how little merit everyone else's posts have. And that makes them feel better. It really is all a worthwhile exercise, dont you think?

you called the guy a liar on zero merit. none. the guy said something and you said 'nuh-uh' because you like our coach. why is it so unbelievable that Beilein feels we need to schedule softer opponents? it's a long season and we target programs like Duke, etc, to flesh out our OOC. i have no problem with a coach saying that he'd rather play NCSSU than Oakland bc he knows he needs more practice'ish teams and not a potential loss/unappreciated win.

Oh, I see, you chose to focus on one small aside in the post. It was the "(which is true, but I doubt he said that)" part that caused you to question the entire post. I wish you'd been more specific.

I dont know if Beilein said that or not. What I do know is that if the coach at a major program gives you a self-depricating compliment, the RIGHT thing to do is to put it in the deprtment of your mind where you keep your nice things, and enjoy it over brandy and cigars at a later date. What you dont do is run to the free press and run your mouth.

my point is you made this post saying he's begging for a beatdown. he's not begging for a beatdown. he's noting this is the last game because beilein said he didn't want to schedule oakland anymore. you're claiming he's exaggerating or lying and thus due for a beatdown.

your post doesn't make sense if beilein did actually say this. i don't even see it as self-depricating. it's candid honesty about the politics of sport. hell, i believe beilein did say it because that is such an item of awareness for him.

Your post really doesn't make sense, as Geaux said. You claim in your post that Kampe is "wagging his tongue" and that he made some underhanded comment against Beilien. I'm not really sure where you're getting that from. Here's the full quote from the article:

Kampe said this game is the end of the OU-Michigan series because U-M coach John Beilein said he "does not want to play us." "I respect him for that, because he's honest," Kampe said. "He told me, Greg, you guys are good enough to beat us, and Michigan fans don't understand (potentially) losing to Oakland."

That seems like a totally reasonable thing for Beilein to say. How is Kampe insulting him? I'm not sure where your premise for this whole post is coming from.

I feel his comments were deliberately inflammatory. And made to prop up his own program at Beilein's expense. And were most likely a betrayal of Beilein's misguided trust. And I didn't type them verbatim as you have because I felt they were a slight to the program. Thanks for that though.

I actually think Michigan has a lot to gain from playing Oakland. Not only is it great for local fans, but with the alternative being playing Eastern or SW Mississippi State Tech, Oakland is probably good for the RPI.

I didn't read his quotes as being inflammatory at all. Sounds like Beilein was just being honest with him. If Michigan is playing tough games in places like the Maui Invitational and ACC/Big 10 challenge, the last thing they need is to lose a game against a Summit League team.

If Oakland was your standard guarantee for a 90-50 win that allowed you to work some things out and play guys that might not time otherwise, we probably would have kept them on the schedule, but Kampe's done a nice job over there and it's just not worth it for us to play them.

I guess I should have been clearer, and that brief aside about (I doubt he said that) which I barely gave a second thought while typing, might have led the more feeble-minded among us to suspect that I was calling him a liar.

I suppose I should have spelled out that I feel his comments were deliberately inflammatory. And made to prop up his own program at Beilein's expense. And were most likely a betrayal of Beilein's misguided trust. But I think most people got it. I could be wrong. But I dont think so.

If the trend of improvement in hoops continues and we find ourselves competing in a consistently challenging schedule, then I don't see much room for an Oakland on the schedule in the future, at least not consistently.

Then again, we could be playing EMU at the Convocation Center, right? I would actually take Oakland then - more entertaining game certainly; Kampe's done a lot with that team.

I dont find what Kampe said inflammatory at all. Oakland is a good team for the conference they are in, they have beaten Tennessee the past 2 years And Kampe is more than a "glorified high school" coach, as he built them up from division II to where they are now. I always root for them to do well.

i used to play softball with Kampe back in the 80's at the rec. center in Toledo in the open division.

You would never think it now....but he was blazingly fast back then. Played outfield and chased down everything. Not much of a hitter in a league that featured the long ball but still a really good player back in the day.

I assume that Michigan pays Oakland to come to Crisler, right? If so, I have a feeling that its a pretty good payout that Oakland is going to sorely miss. Plus, they get to play on a much larger spotlight by playing Michigan. Its all win for them and I can understand why he's upset losing this big asset to the program.